WASHINGTON- Despite a deep cut in the share of federal assistance
going to Illinois, several critical Chicago-area road and transit
projects received major federal funding from a $204 billion
transportation package Congress passed Friday.

After bargaining that left Republican members of the Illinois
congressional delegation hurling recriminations at Sen. Carol
Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.), a last-minute deal produced a commitment for
federal funding to finance fully acceleration of the Stevenson
Expressway reconstruction so the project can be finished in two years
rather than four.

The deal also should finance rebuilding of the badly deteriorating
Wacker Drive in Chicago, transportation officials said, and it also
earmarks $315 million for the projected $420 million cost of
rehabilitating the Douglas branch of the Chicago Transit Authority's
Blue Line. Some 30 percent of the elevated portion of that rapid-
transit line currently is rated a slow zone because of the danger
that would be posed to its weakened supports by vibrations from
fast-moving trains.

Despite the good news for the local scene, with Southern and
Western states now holding sway in the congressional leadership, the
total funding package sharply reversed the previously favorable
treatment of Illinois as a whole in federal transportation
programs.

Beneficiaries of the
transportation bill

The $204 billion transportation bill passed by Congress
on Friday will provide funding for these major Chicago-area
transportation projects.

Blue Line's Douglas branch rehabilitation

Stevenson Expressway reconstruction

Project cost. $420 million

Federal funding. $315 million

The tracks and deteriorating columns would be replaced. No
timetable has been established, and the CTA has not decided
whether it will shut the branch down during
reconstruction.

Project cost. Needs $175 million of additional
funding to complete the $567 million reconstruction.

Federal funding. $25 million earmarked. In a
separate, last-minute deal, leaders agreed to fund the rest
of the project using discretionary funding.

The state still has not determined whether it will begin
work in 1999.

Brown Line station expansion

Wacker Drive reconstruction

Project cost: $310 million

Federal funding: The project has been authorized
for funding, but must compete each year for
appropriation.

Rail stations and platforms would be expanded to accommodate
longer trains.

Project cost: $350 million

Federal funding: $25 million. In a separate deal,
leaders agreed to fund the rest of the project using
discretionary funding.

If the city can gain funding, the proposed project, which
will renovate both the street's top and bottom decks, is
expected to begin in 2001.

Chicago Tribune

With the package being financed by federal gasoline taxes, Illinois
for the next six years will receive only 92 cents back in highway
funding for every dollar motorists pay in federal taxes at the pump,
according to a House- Senate report on the measure.

Under the previous six-year transportation package, Illinois was a
net beneficiary of highway funding, getting back $1.03 in highway
funding for each dollar paid in federal gasoline taxes, according to
the same report.

Referring to the negotiations over the current deal, U.S. Rep. J.
Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said, "Little states, plus Texas, rolled the
bigger states. And Braun wasn't there to protect us."

"Illinois got short-changed big time. And it wasn't because of
what happened in the House," added U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.)

Reacting to those claims, Moseley-Braun shot back, "It's called
the revenge of Trent and Newt," referring to Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). "The
Republican domination of the House and the Senate meant that they
wanted heir states to get back more."

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. John Porter, the North Shore Republican,
lashed out at Moseley-Braun for designating the $315 million in
transit money "earmarks" for use on the Douglas branch lines rather
than on various Metra rail lines.

As a member of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over public
transit, Moseley-Braun was allowed to target that amount for priority
use on specific projects.

Porter spokesman David Kohn called her designation of the entire
amount for the Douglas line "a nakedly political move."

"The Metra lines are represented by Republican congressmen,
presumably with more Republican riders," Kohn said. "All of the money
at her disposal went to serve an 'L' line that serves fewer
people."

Although three Metra lines and expansion of platforms on the CTA's
Ravenswood Brown Line were authorized for federal funding in the
measure, they did not receive any earmarks. Chicago officials and
Democratic lawmakers contended those projects are better able to
compete for annual appropriations on their own merits because of
their increasing ridership.

They contended that, for now, the earmark for the Douglas branch
was the best strategic use of the privilege.

Illinois might have fared worse in the final transportation bill
but for a midday face-off involving U.S. Rep. Bill Lipinski (D-111.),
a high-ranking member of the House Transportation Committee and other
conferees, according to several Illinois lawmakers.

The sources said Lipinski, one of the members of the negotiating
conference, at first refused to sign the panel report, which would
have been an embarrassment. But he returned to the fold after he was
allowed to insert in the legal record of the bill an assertion that
Congress intended for bridge and highway programs that are
administered by the U.S. Transportation Department to fund fully the
Wacker and Stevenson projects.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and his Illinois
counterpart, Kirk Brown, also committed to the deal, lawmakers and
lobbyists said.

"We turned a deplorable situation into at least a satisfactory
situation," Lipinski said.

As a result, the state Department of Transportation is now
confident it will be able to begin the Stevenson Expressway
reconstruction early in 1999 and complete it within two years,
cutting down what was earlier predicted to be a four-year-period of
traffic congestion.

Those commitments come on top of smaller $25 million earmarks
contained in the legislation for both the Wacker and Stevenson
projects.

Improvements on South Lake Shore Drive were earmarked for about $6
million; access improvements to the sprawling USX South Works steel
plant site on the South Side, which the city is seeking to redevelop,
about $7.5 million; a ramp from Cicero Avenue to the new Midway
Airport terminal, $6.5 million; and a museum campus trolley project,
roughly $3.5 million.

Overall, Illinois will receive $885 million a year in federal
highway money, up from $682 currently, but the state's share of the
national pot will decline to 3.38 percent from 3.76 percent
previously.